President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman on Thursday ridiculed US media reports that the Russian strongman may be suffering from cancer, saying he was fine and that journalists should ‘shut their trap’.
Dmitry Peskov blasted those behind speculation that the 62-year-old Putin — who has long cultivated an action-man image — was in ill health.
‘They shouldn’t bank on it. They should shut their trap. Everything’s okay,’ he told journalists at
Putin’s country residence outside Moscow. The New York Post on Friday cited ‘sources’ as saying
Putin was suffering from pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest forms of the disease.
It suggested the information came from an unnamed elderly German doctor who had been treating Putin until recently. It also reported that ‘news outlets from Belarus to Poland’ had been saying for months that Putin — who has dominated Russia’s political scene for almost 15 years — had cancer of the spine. Rumours of Putin’s ill health have persisted over the past few years.
Dmitry Peskov blasted those behind speculation that the 62-year-old Putin — who has long cultivated an action-man image — was in ill health.
‘They shouldn’t bank on it. They should shut their trap. Everything’s okay,’ he told journalists at
Putin’s country residence outside Moscow. The New York Post on Friday cited ‘sources’ as saying
Putin was suffering from pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest forms of the disease.
It suggested the information came from an unnamed elderly German doctor who had been treating Putin until recently. It also reported that ‘news outlets from Belarus to Poland’ had been saying for months that Putin — who has dominated Russia’s political scene for almost 15 years — had cancer of the spine. Rumours of Putin’s ill health have persisted over the past few years.